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\ 



SKETCH 



OF 



THE CITIES 



OP 



BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE, 



BY 



G. E. ELLIS. 



o>S<c 



■ ■■ Ca*N 

BOSTON: >SHmGl^ 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
1875. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

LITTLE, BKOWN, AND COMPANY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






Cambridge : 
Press of John Wilsoji and Son. 



SKETCHES 



CITIES OF BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE. 



Boston, in Suffolk County, the capital of tlie 
State of Massachusetts, and the second city in 
commerce, wealth, banking capital and valuation, 
in the United States of North America. It lies at 
the bottom of Massachusetts Bay, and is one of 
many pear-shaped peninsulas formerly attached to 
the mainland only by narrow marshy necks, which 
fringed the shores of the Bay. The Charles River, 
once more than double its present Avidth, divides 
it from the similar promontory of Charlestown 
(the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill), on the 
other side of Avhich the Mystic River, uniting.with 
the Charles, flows into the harbor. The latest de- 
termination gives the latitude of Boston, 42"" 2V 
27.6'' north, and 5° 59' 18" east longitude from 
Washington, and Tl'^ 3' 30" west from Greenwich. 
When it is noon in Boston it is four o'clock forty- 
four minutes and fourteen seconds at Greenwich, 
and thirty-six minutes past eleven at Washington, 
which is distant by railroad four hundred and fifty 
miles. 



The Indian name of the peninsula was " Shaw- 
mut," meaning "living fountains." When Gov- 
ernor John Winth'rop, Avith liis company, came over 
from England with the king's charter, to establish 
a government under it in the Bay, they reached 
Charlestown, as a temporary settlement, on June 
17, 1630. Looking across the Charles, the Indian 
Shawmut presented to the e^^e an elevation nearly 
in its centre, Avith three distinct summit peaks, the 
remnants of the only one of which now remaining 
constitute the present Beacon Hill, so called from 
its ancient use as a signal warning station. These 
triple summits led to the substitution of the name 
" Trimountaine," or '^ Tremont," as the English 
designation of the whole peninsula ; a favorite title 
perpetuated in the name of a central street, an 
hotel, a theatre, a bank, a lecture-hall, &c. A 
single lonely white man, the Rev. William Blax- 
ton, a clergyman of the English Church, Avas then 
living, Avith house, orchard, and garden, on the 
slope of the central hill, supposed to have come 
OA'er in 1G23, one of several isolated settlers on the 
promontories and islands of the Bay, called " the 
old planters." He invited Winthrop's company to 
cross the river and build their cabins on his side, 
because of the purer and more abundant Avater- 
springs. On the records of the company Ave read, 
that at a court held in Charlestown, Sept. IT (x.s.), 
IGoO, '' It is ordered that Trimountaine shall be 



called Boston." This lias consequently been tlie 
date assumed for the foundation of what is now 
the present city, and the second centennial of 
which was commemorated b}^ public civic services, 
an oration by Josiali Quincy, a former mayor, then 
President of Harvard University, and a poem by 
the banker-poet, Charles Sprague. It is not prob- 
able that the peninsula was occupied till a month 
later. Blaxton, not finding the new-comers con- 
genial associates, sold out his rights to them in 
1634, and moved elsewdiere. It has often been 
said, and has been Avidely accepted, that Boston 
received its name in compliment to the second 
minister of its first church, the Rev. John Cotton, 
formerly vicar of St. Botolph's, borough of Boston, 
Lincolnshire, England. This was not the case. 
The Rev. John Wilson, of King's College, Cam- 
bridge, and of Sudbury, in Suffolk, England, came 
in Winthrop's company, and was first pastor of the 
church. Cotton did not arrive till Sept. 4, 1633, 
three years after the name Boston had been 
adopted. Undoubtedly the name was chosen in 
compliment to the much honored Mr. Isaac John- 
son, one of the foremost in the enterprise, who, 
with his wife, the Lady Arbella, daughter of the 
Earl of Lincoln, came with Winthrop in a vessel 
bearing her name. Johnson was from the English 
Boston, as were also his associates, Atherton Hough, 
wdio had been mayor of the borough, and Thomas 



Leverett, " Ruling Elder " of the cliurch, who hud 
been an alderman. Some graceful courtesies have 
been exchanged in recent years between the two 
cities. The English Boston sent over a copy of 
her charter, framed in wood from St. Botolph's 
Church, and this now hangs in the city hall of 
the Massachusetts capital ; and some descendants 
of John Cotton, with members of his American 
church, through one of their number, Edward Ev- 
erett, then American Minister near the Court of 
St. James, united in a generous subscription to 
restore a chapel in St. Botolph's, and to erect a 
monumental tablet in it to the revered teacher. 
The sea-girt peninsula seems to have attracted 
the choice of the colonists as a place of settlement, 
because of its facilities for commerce and for de- 
fence. Its aboriginal occupants had previously 
been devastated by a plague, leaving it vacant. 
Some fifty years afterwards the settlei'S satisfied 
the claims of an Indian sachem, representing that 
his grandfather had been its proprietor. Had these 
settlers contemplated the enormous outlay of labor, 
skill, and money, which their posterity w^ould have 
to expend upon the original site to make it habita- 
ble and commodious, they might have planted 
themselves elsewhere. There was neither wood 
nor meadow on the peninsula ; but it might be 
defended from Indians and wolves, and, as one 
early visitor vainly imagined, from '' moskitoes." 



The surface was very abrupt, irregular, hilly, and 
undalathig, deeply indented by coves, and sur- 
rounded by salt-marshes left oozy by the ebbing 
tides, and separating the shores from the river 
channels. The peninsula contained less than one 
thousand acres, and the narrow neck, which joined 
it to the main, was often swept by spray and water. 
The widening of Charles River near its mouth, 
gored deeply into the northern side of the penin- 
sula, almost dividing it, and the waters were soon 
turned to account for a mill-pond. This was filled 
up by earth from the hills in 1807, adding more 
than fifty acres to the territory. Another broad 
cove on the southern side was filled in 1837, add- 
ing seventy-seven acres more. The Back Bay, 
so called, and all the flats on both sides of the 
original neck, have since been reclaimed for the 
various uses of a public garden, and squares, 
streets, dwellings, churches, schools, hotels, manu- 
factories, &c., constituting, in fact, a new citv, 
with many costly and elegant structures, on what 
was originall}^ the narrowest and most disagreeable, 
but is now the fairest and widest, portion of the 
primitive site. But whole forests from the State 
of Maine, and vast quarries of granite, and hills of 
country gravel, have been put to service in fring- 
ing the water margins, constructing wharves, piers, 
and causeways, redeeming the flats, and furnishing 
piling and solid foundations for the stately edifices, 



8 

private houses, halls, churches, and railroad sta- 
tions, principally bet^yeen Charles River and the 
old Dorchester fiats. From the first settlement, 
however, the ownership and occupancy of land by 
the citizens were not confined to the soil of the 
peninsula. The land needed for grazing, farming, 
and wood, on neighljoring promontories and islands 
was soon placed under the jurisdiction of Boston, 
for its '' inlargement." Portions of territor}^ thus 
added, were from time to time severed, and have 
since been re-annexed. Noddle's Island, now East 
Boston, was " layd to Boston," in 1637. It then 
contained C60 acres, with several hundreds more 
of flats and marsh, since reclaimed. It has a 
wharf 1,000 feet in length, for the English and 
Canadian steamers. Dorchester Neck and Point, 
containing 560 acres, were annexed as South Bos- 
ton, in 1804, and the neighboring Washington 
Village in 1855. The city of Iloxbury was an- 
nexed in 1868 ; the town of Dorchester in 1870 ; 
the city of Charlestown, and the towns of Brighton 
and West Roxbury, in 1874. The nine hundred 
acres of the original peninsula have been doubled 
on its own area ; while the present area of the city's 
jurisdiction covers 22,472 acres. The Avhole length 
of the original peninsula, from Roxbur}^ line to 
Winnisimmet Ferry, Avas two miles and a little 
more than three quarters ; its greatest breadth was 
one mile and 189 yards. The reclaimed territory is 



9 

raised to a uniform level, sufBciently high to se- 
cure it against freshets, and is well drained. While 
the original site still preserves to a large extent its 
irregularity of surface, and its undulations, some 
of its former steep eminences have been reduced 
or wholly removed. The highest eminence in the 
old territory is about 110 feet above the sea level. 
This w^ork of levelling, grading, and reclaiming 
has been done at vast expense. But greater has 
been the expense of widening and straightening 
the narrow and crooked highways, streets, thor- 
oughfares, and lanes of the first settlers, which 
are traditionally said to have been made by the 
cattle on their way to and from their pastures. 
This, next to the water-works, has been the occa- 
sion of the most considerable increase of the debt 
incurred by the city, somewhat relieved by assess- 
ments for betterment on abutting proprietors. It 
is believed that there has been a larger outlay of 
labor, material, and mone3% in reducing, levelling, 
and reclaiming territory, and in straightening and 
"widening thoroughfares in Boston, than has been 
expended for the same purposes in all the other 
chief cities of the United States together. The 
broad watercourses around Boston are now spanned 
by causewa3"s and bridges. East Boston only, that 
the harbor may be opened to the navy-yard, being 
reached by a ferry. The first bridge over Charlea 
River, that to Charlestown, was opened in 1786 ; 



10 

the West Boston bridge, to Cambridge, in 1793 ; 
the Western Avenue, a solid causeway to Brook- 
line, 7,000 feet long, in 1821. Boston has now to 
maintain sixteen bridges. Most of the railroads 
also have their bridGfes. Six of the islands in Bos- 
ton Harbor are the property of the city, and three 
more of them have been ceded to the United States 
for fortifications. The harbor islands, including 
rocks and shoals, are very numerous, rendering the 
navigation through the two channels very difficult, 
and easily guarded. But the harbor, when reached, 
is very secure. It is nearly fourteen miles deep, 
and eight miles wide, giving nearly sixty square 
miles of anchorage. These islands were for the 
most part heavily wooded when first occupied, and 
some of them were profitably used for grazing and 
pasturage. Since they have been stripped of their 
primitive growth for fuel and building material, it 
has been found impracticable to reclothe them with 
trees, on account of the roughness of the sea-air. 
The washing of the soil from the bluffs of many 
of them, to the great injury of the harbor, has in- 
volved large expense in the erection of sea-walls. 
The first settlers constructed rude defences, fre- 
quentl}^ repaired and extended, on Castle Island, 
two and a quarter miles from Boston. More for- 
midable works were raised here by an English 
engineer in 1701-3. The United States govern- 
ment has constructed elaborate fortifications on 



11 

:his site, now called Fort Independence ; Avhich, 
ivitli Forts Winthrop and Warren, on neighboring 
slands, offer formidable harbor defences. The 
irst light-house was erected in the harbor, on Bea- 
ton Island, 8^ miles from the town, near the 
jrreat Brewster, in 1716. This was destroyed 
luring the Revolutionary War, re-erected in 1783, 
ieded to the United States in 1790, refitted in 1856 
md 1860, with a tower 98 feet high, fog horn, bell, 
^c, and is now called the Outer Light. An inner 
ight-house was established on Long Island Head, 
n 1819, refitted in 1855. On the long spit, at the 
vestern extremity of the Little Brewster, stands 
ihe Bug, or Spit Light, erected in 1856. 

It is remarkable, considering the leading and 
;onspicuous character which has always attached 
;o Boston from the first English settlement of the 
:ountry, that it should have remained for nearly 
;wo centuries under the simple form and adminis- 
tration of a town government, the same as that of 
:he smallest interior hamlets. Such a government, 
3y all the citizens assembled in " town meeting " 
:o dispose all their affairs, was, however, found 
■avorable to the development and prosperity of the 
iommunity. Here was trained a homogeneous 
copulation under peculiar institutions. Wealth 
slowly but steadily increased, through the Avhale 
md cod fisheries, the fur-trade, the sale of lumber 
md pitch, and a commerce largely with the West 



12 

Indies and elsewhere, — tliougli mucli impeded by 
the restrictions of the English navigation laws. 
Heavy exactions and drawbacks were found in the 
Indian and in the French colonial wars. Here 
began opposition to the measures of the British 
ministry, for oppressing and taxing the Colonies. 
The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, was repealed in 
1766. The Tea Act, passed in 1773, was defied 
by the emptying of three cargoes of tea into the 
harbor, December 16, of the same j^ear, by a party 
in the guise of " Mohawk Indians." The port 
w^as closed by a British fleet, June 1, 1774. The 
British army evacuated Boston March 17, 1776, 
after having been beleaguered in it nearly a year. 
The constitution of the State was adopted here in 
1780, midway in the war. 

Boston received a city charter in 1822. Its 
government is composed of a mayor, 12 aldermen, 
and a common council of 72 members, three from 
each of its 24 wards, annually elected by the citi- 
zens. There are commissioners for fire, water, 
health, and various other departments. There is a 
board of 12 overseei*s of the poor, with a commo- 
dious central building, connected with 12 charita- 
ble organizations, with which the board acts in 
concert. The board holds charity trust funds 
amounting to 8-312,183 : it expended in 1874 
8101,591, and relieved 304 beneficiaries on its 
trust funds, and 9,762 other persons. 



13 

Pop^dation^ Valuation^ ^-c. The population of 
Boston, in 1708, was about 12,000 ; in 1719, about 
18,000 in 1780, about 23,000; in 1800, 25,000; in 
1850, 139,000 ; and, with Roxbuiy and Dorchester, 
in 1873, was 308,875. Charlestown brought Avith 
it 32,040 ; West Roxbury, 10,361 ; and Briohton, 
5,978. The total, in 1875, must be rising 360,000. 
The valuation of the city in May, 1875, was 
$554,200,150 of real estate, and $244,554,900 of 
personal property, — total, $798,755,050. The 
value of the corporate public property is 
$30,787,292. The net city debt is $27,294,208. 
The number of public paupers, including insane, 
is 689, of criminals, 1,495. There are 58 banks 
of deposit and discount in the city, the capital 
of which is $52,900,000, and the circulation 
$27,074,396. The number of savings-banks is 
21, with deposits of $73,322,368.56. Of fire and 
marine insurance companies, stock and mutual, 
there are 30, with four new ones in formation, 
besides life insurance companies, and those 
against accidents and for specific forms of prop- 
erty. The annual sale of merchandise in the city 
is estimated at a thousand million dollars. 

Coyiwierce. Boston has commercial relations 
with every part of the globe. In 1874, the gold 
value of its foreign imports was $49,522,547 ; of 
its exports of foreign merchandise, $2,084,257 ; 
and of its domestic merchandise, in currency, 



14 

^27,035,169. There anivecl 617 American ves- 
sels from foreign ports, with a tonnage of 234,587, 
and 6,324 men ; of foreign vessels from foreign 
ports, 1,849, with a tonnage of 484,448 and 18,486 
men. There cleared for foreign ports, 598 Amer- 
ican vessels, with 254,347 tons, and 6,606 men; 
and 1,882 foreign vessels, Avith 472,911 tons, and 
17,995 men. The total tonnage of Boston, regis- 
tered and enrolled, on Dec. 31, 1874, was 331,266. 
Its commerce is slowly recovering from the effects 
of the war of secession. 

Great Fires. The buildings of Boston having 
from the first been largely of wood, — the use of 
which material for that purpose is now under severe 
restrictions, — and closely compacted, the old town 
suffered from frequent and disastrous conflagra- 
tions, several of which were successively described 
as " The Great Fire." There had been ten of 
these disasters, severe under the then existing 
circumstances, before the year 1G98. In 1711, the 
town-house and a meeting-house, both of l)rick, 
and a hundred dwellings w^ere destroyed. In 1760, 
a conflagration consumed 349 dwellings, stores, 
and shops, and rendered more than 1,000 people 
homeless. But these and all subsequent ones 
were eclipsed in their devastation by the disaster 
of Nov. 9-10, 1872, in which hundreds of costly 
warehouses, filled with goods, with banks, offices, 
churches, &c., were destro3'ed, though all of brick 



15 

or granite, involving a loss of over eighty millions 
of dollars. It is an evidence of the energy and 
resources of the citizens, that in a little more than 
two years after the catastrophe, the whole " burnt 
district," with widened and improved thorough- 
fares, was covered with solid, substantial, and pala- 
tial edifices combining all the safeguards, improve- 
ments and conveniences of modern skill. At least 
as large an amount has been expended on this 
restoration as was lost in the ruin. The fire de- 
partment has been made more efficient under the 
control of three commissioners. There are now in 
the city 29 steam fire engines and a fire boat 
in the harbor ; 11 hook and ladder companies ; 
16 horse hose companies, a protective depart- 
ment, an insurance brigade, with wagons, &c., an 
alarm telegraph, and a system of signal boxes. 

Water Sui^ply, Though the first white settlers 
were drawn to Boston by its pure and abundant 
springs, the want of water resources was long felt 
till efficient measures were taken for a supply. 
The southern portion of the town was supplied at 
the beginning of this century by an aqueduct from 
Jamaica Pond in Roxbury. The works already 
constructed and still in progress fully meet the 
present and prospective demands. The waters 
from Cochituate Lake and its tributaries, from 
twenty to thirty miles from the city, flow^ed into it 
by gravitation, October 25, IS-IS. The storage 



• 16 

reservoirs and the works have cost up to May, 18 75, 
$10,786,739. The length of the conduit of brick 
is 14|- miles, and of supply pipes of iron 262J miles. 
The annexation of Charlestown brought with it 
the waters of ]\Iystic Lake, the works for which 
had cost $1,147,902, with one and a half miles of 
brick conduit, and 127 miles of pipe, pumping 
engines and reservoir. 

Til"- jmhlic schools of the city are organized and 
supervised under the statutes of the State which 
make provision for free education by some com- 
pulsory enactments, subject to such special regu- 
lations as may be enjoined by the legislature. 
The legislature of 1875, by an act (chapter 
241), introduced a change in the composition and 
functions of the School Committee. Hencefor- 
ward this board is to consist of twenty-four mem- 
bers, chosen by the citizens on general ticket, to 
be disposed in three sections of eight members 
each. After the close of the first year from the 
first election, eight members are to retire, and eight 
new members are to be elected, to serve for three 
3'ears, all without compensation.. The board is to 
elect and fix the compensation of a secretary, an 
auditing clerk, and other necessary subordinate 
officers, and also of a superintendent of schools, 
and a board of not more than six supervisors. 
The mayor is to be, ex officio, chairman of the 
General Board, to which no other member of the 



17 

citj government can belong, and wliich shall have 
the whole management of the schools, choosing 
and fixing the compensation of all teachers, jani- 
tors, &c., but needing the authority of the City 
Council, before incurring an expense exceeding 
$1,000 for the purchase of land, or the erection 
or alteration of a building. Boston has now 9 high- 
schools, 49 grammar-schools, 416 primary schools, 
25 evening schools, and industrial, licensed minors', 
deaf-mute, and kindergarten schools ; total, 499. 
The number of teachers employed is 1,289 ; of 
scholars, is 53,391. Cost of maintenance for tlie 
year ending May 1, 1875, 11,724,373.61. In the 
old city there is a Latin, English high, girls' high 
and normal school ; and in each of the municipali- 
ties that have been annexed there is a high school, 
where classical education is furnished. 

The puhlic buildings of Boston are very numer- 
ous, embracing those of the United States govern- 
ment, the State, the county, and the city. Most 
of them have been built within a few years, and 
are substantial and commodious, but, owing to the 
constant expansion and growth of the city, each of 
them in turn becomes contracted and needs en- 
largement or a substitute. The buildings con- 
nected with each of the railroad stations have been 
reconstructed for extension three or four times. 
The largest group of edifices and works is that of 
the United States Navy Yard, with docks, manu- 



18 

factories, foundries, machine shops, ordnance stores, 
rope-walks, furnaces, casting pits, timber sheds, 
ordnance parks, ship-houses, &c. The half of a 
very elaborate and costly edifice, the corner-stone 
of which was laid by President Grant, is now com- 
pleted and in use for the United States Post-Office 
and Sub-treasury. The other half, now in progress, 
Avill accommodate the United States Courts. There 
is also a custom-house, with bonded warehouses, 
and the United States Court-House. 

The State House, for the business of the legis- 
lature of the commonwealth, was built in 1798, 
and has been recently greatly extended. It stands 
on the highest land in the city, — what remains of 
the old Trimountaine summits ; has a gilded dome, 
fountains and statues on its lawn, with statues, 
busts, paintings, and trophies within. The edifice 
looks nobly down upon the " Common," so dear 
to the citizens of Boston. This park came with 
the original purchase from Mr. Blaxton, and en- 
closes forty-eight acres, with malls all around it, a 
pond, a fountain, a soldiers' monument, a deer 
park, and about 1,300 trees. An act of the legis- 
lature of 1875 protects it from being encroached 
upon in any way by the municipal authorities 
without a vote of the majority of the citizens. To 
the State also belong a court-house, and some of 
the newly reclaimed territory on the South Bay. 
To the county of Suffolk belong a jail, and court- 



19 

houses, municipal and probate. The State Prison 
is in Charlestown District. 

To the city, besides the school-houses, — which 
bear the names of honored citizens for many gen- 
erations, and of ex-maj-ors, belong a large num- 
ber of structures and appliances. The okl State 
House, so called, built for the British authorities 
in 1712, — the oldest public building now standing 
in the city, Christ Church, dedicated in 1723, com- 
ing next to it ; Faneuil Hall, famous for its patri- 
otic oratory, originally the gift of Peter Faneuil in 
1743, used for '•'- town meetings," and enlarged in 
1806 ; extensive market houses ; the City Hall ; 
the Public Library ; bath houses ; engine houses 
and armories ; the Public Garden on the new ter- 
ritory, highly ornamented, enclosing more than 21 
acres, with a pond : city stables, &c. 

Statues in public places : in bronze, a fine 
equestrian statue of Washington, and those of Dr. 
Franklin, — born in Boston, January 17, 1706, — 
of Daniel Webster, Horace Mann, and Edward 
Everett ; of marble or granite, Washington, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Governor Andrew, Columbus, 
Ai'istides, soldiers in the war of secession, and the 
monument commemorating the introduction of 
the use of ether, as an anaesthetic, first applied in 
the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. 

Boston is fringed with substantial Avharves on 
all its water margins, for the most part covered 



20 

with massive warehouses. Horse rail-roads, or 
tram-Ways, make easy connections within its own 
limits, and with the suburbs. Steam roads open 
communication with the whole continent, in every 
landward direction. Successive experiments have 
been tried with the various materials and methods 
for paving the streets, and constructing sidewalks. 
The streets of the town were first named in 1708. 
The first map of the town, that of Bonner, was 
made in 1722. Overseers of the poor were first 
chosen in 1G91. .The superintendent of lamps 
has charge of 7,664 gas, and 976 fluid burners. 
The cost of gas to the city, for 1874, was 
^275,064.35. There are 17 police-station houses 
and lock-ups ; the expense of that department 
was $683,892.78; of the health department 
$446,877.08; of the fire department $671,511.13; 
of the City Hospital $111,198.31; of penal and 
pauper institutions, $405,903.40. The cost of 
street widenings and extensions from 1822 to 1874 
was $21,739,983.13, and in 1873-74, $6,403,413.76, 
reduced by ^' betterments," $283,697.50: tax 
assessed in 1874, $9,022,187,17. The revenue of 
the city was $23,633,874,06. There had been in 
the town and original city, eleven burial-places. 
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, five miles 
distjint, enclosing 125 acres, was put to use in 
1831. There have been more than 19,000 inter- 
ments in it. Five other suburban cemeteries are 



21 

now provided, and interments in the city are pro- 
hibited. 

The Public Library^ as an institution of the cit}-, 
was fostered by an enterprise initiated by i\I. 
Yattemare, in securing a gift of books from the 
city of Paris, in 1848. Acts of the legishiture, 
renewed and extended from 1848 to 1857, aided 
by the efforts of individual citizens and meetings 
of committees, with free and conditional gifts of 
money and of books, kept the object steadily in 
view. In 1852, Mr. Joshua Bates, born in Massa- 
chusetts, then of the firm of the Messrs. Baring, of 
London, made a gift to the city for the purpose of a 
library, of 150,000, subsequently adding various 
donations of books. The main hall of the library 
building bears his name, in commemoration of his 
munificence. The present spacious and solid struct- 
ure, which, however, already needs a second en- 
largement, was inaugurated for its uses, on January 
1, 1858, with an address by Edward Everett. It cost, 
with the land, 8365,000. Large donations of money 
and of private libraries have since accrued from 
living benefactors, and by bequests. The names 
of Ex-Mayor Bigelow, of Abbott Lawrence, and 
Jonathan Phillips deserve mention for their pecun- 
iary gifts; while the libraries of Theodoi-e Parker, 
Edward Everett, and George Ticknor, have fur- 
nished most valuable acquisitions. Here i3 depos- 
ited the Prince Library, belonging to the Old South 



22 

religious society. The unique and rich collection, 
known as the Barton Library, of 12,000 volumes, 
including the magnificent Shakespearian treasures, 
was obtained in 1873. The edifice has been once 
enlarged, with efforts to render it fire-proof, and 
additional ground has been purchased at a cost of 
$70,000. The expense of its maintenance and 
care, in 1874, was $135,000. There are employed 
in it 103 persons. The number of volumes is 
about 280,000, besides pamphlets, MSS., and val- 
uable collections of engravings, including the Tosti, 
so called. Branch libraries are estabUshed for the 
convenience of the citizens, in South and East 
Boston, Dorchester,Roxbury, Brighton, and Charles- 
town ; and a system of other local deliveries has 
been initiated. 

Of churches^ and places of worship, in Boston, 
there are 163 for Protestants, 26 for Roman Cath- 
olics, and 3 Jewish synagogues. The Roman 
Catholics have a cathedral which will seat more 
than 4,000. The Unitarians have the largest 
number of Protestant churches. There are 112 
public halls, which serve very miscellaneous uses 
of worship, debate, lecturing, society meetings, 
and amusement. 

Literary, learned, scientific, benevolent, and se- 
cret societies, represented by their own edifices, 
halls, libraries, and collections, are very numerous, 
and well sustained. Among these may be men- 



23 

tionecl the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
the Massachusetts Historical Society ; the Boston 
Athenaeum, with a very extensive libraiy, paint- 
ings, and statuary ; the New England Historic 
Genealogical Society; the Masonic Temple; the 
Odd Fellows' Hall ; the Mechanics' Association ; 
the Mercantile Library Association ; the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology ; The Boston 
College, Roman Catholic ; the Boston University, 
Methodist ; Young Men's Christian Union ; Young 
Men's Christian Association, with a sectarian con- 
dition ; Young Women's Christian Association ; 
the Natural History Society ; the Horticultural 
Society ; the INIarine Society ; the Boston Library 
Society ; the Music Hall, with its great organ ; the 
Harvard IMedical School, and Warren Museum ; 
the State Library ; the Law Library ; the General 
Theological Library ; the Art Museum, &c. 

There are four theatres in the city : the Boston, 
the Globe, the Howard, and the Museum. 

Hospitals, asylums, and refuges, chiefly founded 
and sustained by private benevolence, and gener- 
ously administered, provide, for the most part 
gratuitously, for the various ills and maladies of 
humanity. Of these, besides the City Hospital, 
may be mentioned the Massachusetts General Hos- 
pital, with its branch for the insane, the McLean 
Asylum, in a suburb ; the Orphan Asylum ; the 
Perkins Institution for the Blind ; the Eye and 



24 

Ear Infirmary ; the Consumptives' Home ; tlie 
Carney Hospital ; the Homoeopathic Hospital ; the 
School for the Idiotic and Feeble-minded; the Ly- 
ing-in Hospital ; the Temporary, Washingtonian, 
and Appleton Homes ; Hospitals for Women, Chil- 
dren, and Inhmts ; Homes for Aged Men, for 
Aged Women, and for Colored Women, for Little 
Wanderers ; a Children's Mission ; House of the 
Angel Guardian : Commissioners of Foreign j\Iis- 
sions, &c. The city institutions for paupers, the 
insane, and criminals, are in South Boston and on 
Deer Ibland. 

Kinety years after the settlement of the town 
of Boston, Daniel Neal, of London, wrote a de- 
scription of it, returning from his visit. In this 
he says : '' The conversation in this town is as po- 
lite as in most of the cities and towns in England, 
many of their merchants having travelled into 
Europe ; and those that stay at home having the 
advantage of a free conversation with travellers; 
so that a gentleman from London would almost 
think himself at home at Boston^ when he observes 
the Numbers of People, tlieir Houses, their Furni- 
ture, their Tables, their Dress and Conversation, 
which perhaps is as splendid and showy as tliat of 
the most considerable Tradesmen in London." 
Though in the succession of visitors from abroad, 
particularly from England, who have followed Mr. 
Neal, there have been a few who have found matter 



25 

for satire and depreciatory criticism in their accounts 
of Boston, of its citizens, their habits, &c., the 
great majority of its foreign guests, especially if 
their own manners and errands have recommended 
them, have written in a similar strain. They have 
found here much to learn and enjoy, and to remem- 
ber with pleasure. Cultivated Englishmen, par- 
ticularly those who have visited Boston in recent 
years, to obtain or to impart information, have found 
themselves at home here. The supposed conceit 
of its citizens over their own distinctive qualities 
or advantages, has led to some pleasant banter 
from at home and abroad, in characterizing the 
cit}^ as the "Athens of America," or, *' The Hub 
of the Universe." 

The develoj)ment, growth, and increased popu- 
lation of the city, imder the liberal social influences, 
and the changes of opinion and habit, which in no 
part of the wbrld are more marked and active than 
here, have, of course, wholly displaced the original 
homogeneousness of its people, and the peculiarly 
Puritan character of the tone and customs of life. 
Its large foreign population make, in traditions, 
habits, social relations, and religion, a nation within 
a nation. The unfamiliar names which appear on 
the signs of shops and dwellings ; the relaxed 
usages as regards the observance of Sunday, and 
the indulgence in amusements, lai'ge personal free- 
dom, &c., have made Boston, substantially, a cos- 



26 

mopolitan city. Those now living remember when 
a person who ventured to smoke a cigar or a pipe 
in the street would have fallen into the hands of 
a constable. When the travel in the streets is 
annually obstructed by an elaborate procession, 
mounted and on foot, on " St. Patrick's Day," and 
when a cardinal, with other officials from the court 
of Kome, comes hither to consecrate an archbishop 
in a cathedral, it is diflicult to recall the virgin 
promontory, and the English exiles, with which 
this article began. 



Cambridge, a city in the County of Middlesex, 
State of Massachusetts. It lies on Charles River, 
three miles N. W. of Boston, with which it is con- 
nected by two bridges, wdth long causeways, and 
by horse railroads, or tramways. It is the seat of 
Harvard University, the oldest, richest, and most 
thoroughly equipped literary institution in the 
United States. Connected with the University is 
an observatory, latitude 42"^ 22' 48" north, and Tl'^' 
8' west longitude. Under the name of Newtown, 
a settlement was made on its territory, then much 
more extended than at present, by some of the first 
company of English colonists on Massachusetts 
Bay, in 1630. It was then proposed to make it 
the capital of the colony ; but the neighboring 
peninsula of Boston was found more convenient 
for commerce, and defence a2;'ainst the Indians. 



27 

The order of the colony court in 1636 having pro- 
vided for phmting a college at Newtown, its name 
was changed to Cambridge, in honor of the English 
University town, where some of the leading men 
of the colony had been educated. The first com- 
pany of settlers, bemg Mr. Hooker's church and 
congregation, moved to Connecticut in 1036, to 
find\etterfarm land. Their rights Avere purchased 
by another body of colonists, just arrived from 
England. The present site of the college halls 
was originally '^ fortified " by palisades, within 
which the settlers found protection at night for 
themselves and their cattle against a possible in- 
road of the savages. Here was set up the first 
imnting-press in the United States, and from it 
issued "john Eliot's translation of the Bible, for 
the Indians, into their own language. 

Under the title of "Cambridge Farms," the 
present town of Lexington, incorporated as such 
in 1712, was a part of the original town. ^ The 
town of Brighton, now annexed to the city of 
Boston, formerly South Cambridge, or Little Cam- 
bridge, was set off by its present name in 1807 ; 
andUie west part of the original settlement, known 
as Menotomy, was set off in the same year, as 
West Cambridge, now known as Arlington. Be- 
tween this place and Cambridge is North Cam- 
bridge ; and the districts of the city nearest to 
Bost^'on, by the two bridges, are called Cambridge- 



28 

port and East Cambridge. Cambridge was incor- 
porated as a city in 1846. It is for the most part 
level, with much marsh land near the river, por- 
tions of which are in process of being reclaimed. 
The cemetery of Mount Auburn is on the western 
border of the city. 

The population of Cambridge in 1874 was 
50,337 ; the number of polls for voters, 11,983 ; 
of dwellings, 7,383. The valuation was : of per- 
sonal property, 817,532,971 ; of real, 149,043,700 ; 
total, $66,576,671. The net debt of the city, in- 
curred for water-works, streets, school-houses, and 
other improvements, is $3,792,135. The city ap- 
propriation for 1874 was $2,771,508. Total cost 
of the water-works, $1,399,396. The police de- 
partment, with 60 officers, cost $71,710 ; fire de- 
partment, $97,355 ; filling up low lands, $650,000. 
The average number of paupers, 129 ; net cost of 
their maintenance, $38,000. Cost of street light- 
ing, $20,157. The system of public schools is very 
complete and efficient, including a high-school, 7 
grammar - schools, 18 primaries, and a training 
school, 183 teachers ; cost of maintenance, 
$260,187.47. 

Cambridge was the site of the camp of the first 
American army, at the outbreak of the War of 
the Revolution with Great Britain. From it went 
the detachment which intrenched on Bunker's 
Hill ; and here Washington took command of the 
army, July 3, 1775. 





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